PROJECT MANAGEMENT FINAL EXAM

NAME – SHUBHAM SHAWARN

REG. NO: FMS/MBA/2019-21/033

SECTION – A

[1]

a.

Project crashing is after you shorten the duration of a project by reducing the time of 1 or more tasks. Crashing is
finished by increasing the resources to the project, which helps make tasks take less time than what they were
planned for. during this way I reduce time and achieve goal in time.

b.

RACI - RACI is an acronym that stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. A RACI chart is a matrix
of all the activities or decision-making authorities undertaken in an organization set against all the people or roles.

• Responsible (nominate the stakeholder charged with doing the

h.

Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks (defined in ISO 31000 as the effect of
uncertainty on objectives) followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor,
and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.

Risks can come from various sources including uncertainty in international markets, threats from project failures (at
any phase in design, development, production, or sustaining of life-cycles), legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents,
natural causes and disasters, deliberate attack from an adversary, or events of uncertain or unpredictable root-
cause.

f.

The RBS applies to the resources. It provides a basis for defining a parent group for each resource (perhaps all
resources within a specific discipline). For instance, we might have Tom, Joan, and Iris, who are mechanical
designers. The parent category would be Mechanical Engineering & Design, which, in turn, is a part of the Eng'ng &
Design Function.

The problem child in this alphabet soup is the OBS. Sometimes it is set up to be the exact same function as the RBS.
In other words, it is an RBS that is called OBS. Other times it is set up to be a second variation of the WBS (as we
noted, it is quite normal for there to be several WBS-type hierarchies). There is certainly a significant difference in
these two concepts, as the RBS should be used only for the resource data, whereas the OBS is intended solely for
task data.

c.
The Wideband Delphi estimation method is a consensus-based technique for estimating effort. It derives from the
Delphi method which was developed in the 1950-1960s at the RAND Corporation as a forecasting tool.

d.

A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is a legal entity created for a specific purpose. In the context of raising capital, a SPV
(usually structured as LLC) can be used as a funding structure, by which all investors (or investors under a given
investment threshold) are pooled together into a single entity.

e.

Activity sequencing involves identifying and documenting interactivity dependencies. Activities must be sequenced
accurately in order to support later development of a realistic and achievable schedule.

g.

FMEA - Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a structured approach to discovering potential failures that may
exist within the design of a product or process. Failure modes are the ways in which a process can fail. Effects are the
ways that these failures can lead to waste, defects or harmful outcomes for the customer.

SECTION – B

1.

The project management life cycle is usually broken down into four phases: initiation, planning, execution, and
closure. These phases make up the path that takes your project from the beginning to the end.

1. Initiation

First, you need to identify a business need, problem, or opportunity and brainstorm ways that your team can meet
this need, solve this problem, or seize this opportunity. During this step, you figure out an objective for your project,
determine whether the project is feasible, and identify the major deliverables for the project.

•Undertaking a feasibility study: Identify the primary problem your project will solve and whether your project will
deliver a solution to that problem

•Identifying scope: Define the depth and breadth of the project

•Identifying deliverables: Define the product or service to provide

•Identifying project stakeholders: Figure out whom the project affects and what their needs may be

•Developing a business case: Use the above criteria to compare the potential costs and benefits for the project to
determine if it moves forward

•Developing a statement of work: Document the project’s objectives, scope, and deliverables that you have
identified previously as a working agreement between the project owner and those working on the project

2. Planning

•Creating a project plan: Identify the project timeline, including the phases of the project, the tasks to be performed,
and possible constraints

•Creating workflow diagrams: Visualize your processes using swim lanes to make sure team members clearly
understand their role in a project

•Estimating budget and creating a financial plan: Use cost estimates to determine how much to spend on the project
to get the maximum return on investment

•Gathering resources: Build your functional team from internal and external talent pools while making sure
everyone has the necessary tools (software, hardware, etc.) to complete their tasks
•Anticipating risks and potential quality roadblocks: Identify issues that may cause your project to stall while
planning to mitigate those risks and maintain the project’s quality and timeline

•Holding a project kickoff meeting: Bring your team on board and outline the project so they can quickly get to work

Get started by mapping out all process steps and responsibilities in this workflow diagram template.

3. Execution

•Creating tasks and organizing workflows: Assign granular aspects of the projects to the appropriate team members,
making sure team members are not overworked

•Briefing team members on tasks: Explain tasks to team members, providing necessary guidance on how they should
be completed, and organizing process-related training if necessary

•Communicating with team members, clients, and upper management: Provide updates to project stakeholders at
all levels

•Monitoring quality of work: Ensure that team members are meeting their time and quality goals for tasks

•Managing budget: Monitor spending and keeping the project on track in terms of assets and resources

If you have a properly documented process already in place, executing the project will be much easier.

Depending on the project management methodology you follow, there are many visual tools that you can apply to
see which deliverables have been completed ensure that your project remains on track. Click the Kanban board and
Gantt chart templates below to learn more.

4. Closure

Once your team has completed work on a project, you enter the closure phase. In the closure phase, you provide
final deliverables, release project resources, and determine the success of the project. Just because the major
project work is over, that doesn’t mean the project manager’s job is done—there are still important things to do,
including evaluating what did and did not work with the project.

Steps for the project closure phase may include the following:

•Analyzing project performance: Determine whether the project's goals were met (tasks completed, on time and on
budget) and the initial problem solved using a prepared checklist.

•Analyzing team performance: Evaluate how team members performed, including whether they met their goals
along with timeliness and quality of work

•Documenting project closure: Make sure that all aspects of the project are completed with no loose ends remaining
and providing reports to key stakeholders

•Conducting post-implementation reviews: Conduct a final analysis of the project, taking into account lessons
learned for similar projects in the future

•Accounting for used and unused budget: Allocate remaining resources for future projects

By remaining on task even though the project’s work is completed, you will be prepared to take everything you’ve
learned and implement it for your next project.

6.

The international standard providing guidance on social responsibility, called ISO 26000, defines a stakeholder as an
"individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organization." Stakeholders may include:
Suppliers. Internal staff, such as employees and workers. Members.

Start by brainstorming who your stakeholders are. As part of this, think of all the people who are affected by your
work, who have influence or power over it, or have an interest in its successful or unsuccessful conclusion.
The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that:

•You can use the opinions of the most powerful stakeholders to shape your projects at an early stage, their input can
also improve the quality of your project.

•Gaining support from powerful stakeholders can help you to win more resources – this makes it more likely that
your projects will be successful.

•By communicating with stakeholders early and frequently, you can ensure that they fully understand what you are
doing and understand the benefits of your project – this means they can support you actively when necessary.

IDENTIFY YOUR STAKEHOLDER

The first step in your Stakeholder Analysis is to brainstorm who your stakeholders are. As part of this, think of all the
people who are affected by your work, who have influence or power over it, or have an interest in its successful or
unsuccessful conclusion. Remember that although stakeholders may be both organizations and people, ultimately
you must communicate with people. Make sure that you identify the correct individual stakeholders within a
stakeholder organization.

PRIORITIZE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS

Once you have the long list of people and organizations that are affected by your work. Some of them may have the
power either to block or advance. Some may be interested in what you are doing, others may not care. This is where
the Power-Interest grid comes in handy in segregating/prioritizing the stakeholders. Doing this helps in identifying
stakeholders based on their power and interest in the project. When you plot your stakeholders on a power/interest
grid, you can determine who has high or low power to affect your project, and who has high or low interest. People
with high power need to be kept satisfied, while people with high interest need to be kept informed. When a
stakeholder has both, make sure you manage her expectations very closely.

The above figure explains the different approach we should have for the segregated/prioritized stakeholders.

•High power - High interest: these are the stakeholders are decision makers and have the biggest impact on the
project success and hence you must closely manage their expectations.

•High power - Low Interest: these are the stakeholder needed to be kept in loop, these stakeholders need to be kept
satisfied even though they aren’t interested because they yield power. These types of stakeholders should be dealt
with cautiously as well since they may use their power in a not desired way in the project if they become unsatisfied.

•Low power – High interest: keep these people adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major
issues are arising. These people can often be very helpful with the detail of your project.

•Low power - low interest: monitor these people, but do not bore them with excessive communication.
4.

Sometimes we are not sure whether our project is on track or not, hence we consider these common traits of failing
or struggling projects:

•The person with the original vision for the project is no longer on board or participating

•The project lacks a person to provide direction and vision

•The scope keeps changing because too many people are offering input

•The original goals of the project are no longer present

•There is no agreement on what a successful outcome is

It’s been a tough few week on the new project. The team is working hard but somehow, you’re falling behind.
Communication with the client isn’t going well or perhaps you are just overwhelmed and frustrated because things
aren’t coming together as they should. Every architect, engineer and project manager know the pressure of a project
that falls behind. If you recognize that your project is slipping away from you, it’s necessary to grab a hold of it now
and do something to get it back on track before it becomes impossible to do so. These 5 steps give you the direction
to get back in business.

1.Discover the Underlying Problem

The most important step is to find out what’s failing. Don’t look at just the surface but rather the depth of the
problem. Ultimately, your company cannot move forward until you identify and correct the underlying cause. This
could be:

•Staff leaving the project

•Limited time dedicated to the project

•Poor communication

•Unclear expectations from clients and contractors

•Limitations in the scope of the project

Once we understand the cause, formulate a solution to deal with that right now. Then, take steps to move the
project in the right direction based on the findings.

2.Put in Extra Time to Get Caught Up

A big problem with derailed projects is a lack of time invested. Sure, you may have a team investing 40 hours a week
on the project, but if they are not actually working hard at achieving goals because of a lack of motivation or
direction, those 40 hours are worthless. It may be necessary to begin tracking hours worked and compare these
against the outcome. What’s being accomplished within the hours dedicated to the project?

3.Go Back to The Vision and Original Plan

In many situations, the heart of the problem stems from misdirection or changes related to the original plan. Are you
no longer on scope? Is your project overrun in terms of budget because of the numerous changes present? It’s a
common situation that can stall a project immediately. Go back to the beginning project. Determine if your vision is
clear, if it should be reassessed, or if you should go back to the client to realign project goals and specs.

4.Take A Close Look at Resources

Are we just throwing extra people at the problem, and money, and hoping it fixes itself? Take a closer look at your
resources:

•Consider re-delegating and re-allocating people to the right tasks, those they are best suited for.

•Spread out hard or time-consuming tasks among several people to get caught up
•Identify those who are not contributing efficiently

Your resources are the bread and butter of your company and the project. Using them wisely is critical.

5.Talk to Your Client

Even if you’ve caught the project before it collapsed, it’s important to bring the client in on what’s occurring and
why. The client may need to make changes to the project or expectations. Having open communication here is
critical.

Taking the time to analyze your project on a regular basis by tracking hours worked, progress, changes in costs, and
other details can help ensure your project achieves the best outcome possible.

3.

The project life cycle includes the steps required for project managers to successfully manage a project from start to
finish. There are 5 phases to the project life cycle (also called the 5 process groups)—initiating, planning, executing,
monitoring/controlling, and closing. Each of these project phases represents a group of interrelated processes that
must take place.

The 5 process groups of project management

A). Initiating phase

The initiating phase of the project life cycle consists of just two separate processes: the project charter and
stakeholder register. The point of this phase is to determine the vision for your project, document what you hope to
accomplish, and secure approvals from a sanctioning stakeholder. The key components of the project charter
include:

• Business case
• Project scope
• Deliverables
• Objectives
• Resources needed
• Milestone plan and timeline
• Cost estimate
• Risks and issues
• Dependencies

When you take the time to establish a clear and cohesive vision, think through who should ideally be involved in
bringing the project to life, and secure the resources you’ll need up front, you give your project a strong start that
sets the stage for everything that comes next.

B). Planning phase:

The planning phase process group is where you build the project infrastructure that will enable you to achieve your
goal within your predetermined time and budget constraints, starting with a project management plan, project
scope, work breakdown structure and more—and wrapping up with qualitative and quantitative risk analyses and
risk responses. This is your detailed roadmap—your blueprint for success. When you reach the end of this phase of
the life cycle, everyone on your team will not only understand the vision of the project, they’ll also understand
precisely what they need to do to reach the finish line on time and within budget.

C). Executing phase

The executing phase is where the rubber hits the road—where most of the budget is allocated and most of the
project deliverables are produced. You take your project plan and put it into action, whether that takes weeks,
months, or even years. Villanova University defines the goal of this phase as, “managing teams effectively while
orchestrating timeline expectations and reaching benchmark goals.” The executing phase often includes team
development, stakeholder engagement, and quality assurance activities, either on a formal or informal basis.

D). Monitoring and controlling phase:

The monitoring and controlling phase involve keeping an eye on the actual progress of the project against your plan
and taking corrective action where necessary. No amount of perfect planning will exempt you from the need to be
constantly vigilant with tracking and reporting. You know what they say about the best-laid plans, after all.

E). Closing phase

The closing phase is the final phase of the project life cycle includes just one solitary process, and it’s more than
simply checking off the project as done. It’s essential to formally close the project and secure a sign-off or approval
from the customer, stakeholders, and/or project sponsor. This process might include:

• Delivering the project

The importance of this final step of the project life cycle can’t be overstated, especially as more organizations are
adopting the Hollywood model of work, where temporary teams come together around a specific project, and then
disband and regroup for another project, much the way film crews operate. Every film production ends with a “wrap
party,” and so should every major work project.